Tokyo in 6 Days on a Budget (With Daily Costs)
Six days spent entirely in Tokyo goes deeper than most trips manage: old and new Tokyo, a full Toyosu day, Ginza and the Imperial Palace, Ueno and Yanaka, and a sixth day in Shimokitazawa and Shinjuku Gyoen. No day trip out, this is the “know one city properly” version. Rough total across all six days: ¥31,000-50,000 in attractions, food, and local transit, excluding your hotel. Want Kamakura, Hakone or Nikko instead? The gateway 6-day itinerary builds all three in.
Book these before you go:
- Hotels: check rates on Agoda on the Yamanote loop.
- teamLab Borderless and teamLab Planets, both online-only.
- Shibuya Sky sunset slots, if you’re doing it over the free Shinjuku deck.
| Day | Focus | Rough cost per person |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Asakusa, Tsukiji Outer, Skytree, Akihabara | ¥6,000-7,000 |
| Day 2 | Harajuku, Shibuya, Shinjuku’s free view | ¥6,500-11,000 |
| Day 3 | Toyosu sushi breakfast and teamLab Planets | ¥7,800-12,200 |
| Day 4 | Ginza and the Imperial Palace | ¥3,500-6,000 |
| Day 5 | Ueno and Yanaka | ¥3,000-7,000 |
| Day 6 | Shimokitazawa, Shinjuku Gyoen, Golden Gai | ¥4,000-6,500 |
Get a Suica or PASMO the moment you land, either Welcome Suica Mobile loaded in Apple Wallet before you fly or a physical Welcome Suica at the airport counter, and tap it for every train, bus, and most convenience store purchases from here on.
Day 1: Old Tokyo
Senso-ji in Asakusa is free to enter, and Nakamise-dori’s snack stalls are doing business well before 9am (budget ¥500-800 for breakfast there). Head south to Tsukiji Outer Market for lunch, the surviving half of the old fish market since the wholesale side with the tuna auction moved to Toyosu in 2018; grilled scallops and a seafood rice bowl run ¥1,500-2,500 grazing the stalls. Spend the afternoon at Tokyo Skytree, ¥1,800-2,100 for the 350m deck booked online, then finish in Akihabara, free to wander, with ramen for dinner at ¥800-1,200.
Day 1: roughly ¥6,000-7,000.
Day 2: New Tokyo
Meiji Shrine, free with an optional donation, is a quiet start before Takeshita Street in Harajuku fills with crepe stands (¥500-700 a crepe). Shibuya Scramble Crossing costs nothing to cross; Shibuya Sky above it runs ¥2,700-3,400 depending on time slot and sells out days ahead without an advance booking. A short ride toward Roppongi reaches teamLab Borderless at Azabudai Hills, reopened in 2024 after the old Odaiba site closed, ¥3,600-5,600, also booked online in advance. Close the day at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku: two 45th-floor observatories, free, no reservation, plus a nightly light show projected on the building’s east face from sunset to around 9pm. Dinner in Omoide Yokocho or Golden Gai runs ¥2,500-4,500 with drinks.
Day 2: roughly ¥9,000-11,000 with both paid attractions, or ¥6,500-8,000 if you skip Shibuya Sky for the free Shinjuku deck instead.
Day 3: Toyosu
Give Toyosu the whole day instead of squeezing it in. A sit-down sushi breakfast near the market runs ¥4,000-8,000+, the closest thing to the old Tsukiji tuna-auction experience now that the wholesale market has moved here. teamLab Planets, the wet and immersive concept in the same neighborhood, runs ¥3,800 weekday, ¥4,200 weekend, booked online in advance same as Borderless. The waterfront promenade nearby is free to walk if you want an easy afternoon after two sit-down meals worth of sushi and art.
Day 3: roughly ¥7,800-12,200.
Day 4: Ginza and the Imperial Palace
Start at the Imperial Palace East Gardens, free, no booking needed unless you want the separate interior palace tour. Ginza next door is worth a walk past the department stores even without buying anything; the depachika food hall in the basement of Mitsukoshi Ginza sells restaurant-quality bento and desserts for ¥1,000-2,000, a solid way to handle lunch. Dinner anywhere in Ginza or back near your hotel runs ¥2,500-4,000.
Day 4: roughly ¥3,500-6,000.
Day 5: Ueno and Yanaka
Ueno Park is free to wander, with the Ameyoko market nearby for cheap souvenirs and street snacks; museum entry is optional, roughly ¥1,000 for the Tokyo National Museum if you want to go inside. Spend the afternoon in Yanaka: old shitamachi streets, a cemetery walk, and cat cafes, one of the few areas of the city spared WWII bombing and a genuinely different pace from everywhere else on this list. Dinner nearby runs ¥2,500-4,000.
Day 5: roughly ¥3,000-7,000 depending on the museum.
Day 6: Shimokitazawa, Shinjuku Gyoen, and Golden Gai
Shimokitazawa, a short hop from Shibuya, is free to wander: vintage shops, indie coffee bars, and none of the crowds from earlier in the week. Shinjuku Gyoen, one of Tokyo’s best gardens, runs about ¥500 entry, a cheap and calm afternoon stop. For your last night, do a Golden Gai bar crawl, tiny counters seating four to six, drinks and a cover typically ¥1,500-3,000 for the evening, or an Omoide Yokocho izakaya dinner at ¥2,500-4,500 with drinks.
Day 6: roughly ¥4,000-6,500.
What to know
The nationwide JR Pass never enters into a Tokyo-only trip like this one: at roughly ¥50,000 for seven days, it costs more than everything on this table combined, and there’s no Shinkansen leg here to justify it. Carry some cash regardless, since Tsukiji stalls, older Akihabara shops, and some Golden Gai bars don’t all take cards. Last trains stop running around midnight, and taxis after that add a 20% night surcharge, so build a buffer into your last couple of nights out rather than aiming for the last departure of the night.
Book Shibuya Sky and both teamLab sites as soon as you have dates, not the week before you fly. Six days gives you room to shuffle if something’s sold out, but only if you’ve already booked the things that need booking.